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Marketing to the Latino Market - Maria Lopez-Knowles |
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If your organization hasn't considered marketing to US Latinos,
get ready - this may occur sooner than you think. The Latino
market is the nation's largest minority market - and to no one's
surprise, the fastest growing demographic (3% a year) as well. In the
US there are approximately 39 million Latinos, roughly 13% of the
US total population. The market continues to grow by 400,000/year. And
in terms of buying power, in 2003 Latinos had a disposable income of
$652 Billion.
Understanding the
Market
When marketing to Latinos (or Hispanics), success begins with knowing the
market. This isn't a homogenous group - even
though they share a single language (Spanish) and more often
than not, a common religion (Roman Catholic). Latinos in
the US are primarily comprised of Mexicans (66%),
Central/South Americans (15%), Puerto Ricans (9%),
and Cubans (4%).
Though Latinos share bonds of exile, the nature of their exile varies.
Some groups are political exiles (e.g., Cubans) and others,
economic exiles (e.g., Mexicans). This is an important
distinction because it means the market has different levels
of education and occupations, and more
important to the marketer - different media habits. Case in
point, Cubans tend to read newspapers more than any other Latino group in
the US.
Geographically, Latinos tend to cluster in areas that reinforce
acculturation rather than assimilation. By
acculturating, Latinos can retain both their Latin
culture and their American culture. These areas include: FL,
CA, NY, TX, and, IL. On the other hand, sometimes they adopt their
new culture and become similar to members of their new homeland -
thus the term, assimilation.
Finally, Latinos tend to be family-oriented,
close-knit, fundamentally conservative, and
interested in passing on their cultural heritage to their
children.
Marketing to
Latinos
Latinos are an extremely brand loyal group, which is why
marketers that tap into this market typically see exponential
returns on their investment. Latinos are highly enthusiastic when
they see products advertised to them with care. They are quality
conscious, and they don't appreciate stereotypes
when it comes to marketing (e.g., depicting the Latino culture as a
strictly patriarchal society). Latinos also appreciate
seeing Latino talent promoting products - it gives them an
incredible sense of pride.
And while using Latino talent invokes great pride in the community,
misusing the language creates problems. In fact, the
paramount gaffe made by most organizations marketing to Latinos
involves verbatim translations from English to Spanish.
Why? Translating language doesn't equate to translating culture
and it's viewed as an insult to the market. Additionally,
some Spanish words don't mean the same thing to all groups. So be
cognizant of Spanish language rules when marketing to Latinos:
translate ideas/feelings - or better yet, start from scratch and
develop concepts exclusively for this market; respect
accent marks; and, always, respect punctuation.
Linguistic marketing blunders have cost advertisers the
Hispanic market in the past. For example, years ago Chevy
tried to introduce the NOVA in
Puerto Rico and it was a huge failure. Why? NOVA literally
means 'doesn't go'. Budweiser's positioning as King
of Beers didn't go over too well in the Latino market either. Why?
Beer is feminine in the Spanish language: la cerveza. Technically,
Budweiser would have to be a queen!
Marketing
Recommendation
Should your organization dive into Hispanic marketing activities, here are
some words of wisdom. If possible, execute primary research
into your target market, in their language of preference.
Make sure that the research is representative of the market you are trying
to reach as well (e.g. don't execute research with Puerto Ricans residing
in New York,
if your target market is Cuban-Americans in
Miami).
Develop an original Latino marketing program and execute
your program with care. Start all creative concepts from
scratch, make sure you have appropriate response mechanisms
in place to measure success, and make sure you have
bilingual/bicultural staff available to answer any questions your
Latino prospects or customers may have.
Depending on what product/service you are marketing, consider
Spanish language broadcast (efficient for reaching the Latino
market) as well as a secondary medium (e.g., junior outdoor boards),
for an integrated campaign. And, make sure that being involved in the
community, at a grass roots level, is part of your program
(e.g., actively co-sponsoring a local soccer event or a baseball game).
Grass roots level marketing should be a critical component
of any program for this market - it's at that level that you build trust
and a relationship, which is paramount for converting brand awareness to
brand loyalty.
Best of luck in your marketing efforts. If you are interested in
additional information regarding marketing to Latinos, send me an email:
maria@marketingacumen.com.
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Junior Outdoor Boards: These are smaller
than standard-sized billboards, 6' x 12' (8-sheet) in size.
They are typically used in residential areas
where marketers are trying to build brand awareness among a specific
demographic (e.g. minority markets).
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When Worlds Collide: Branding vs Positioning - Steve Knowles |
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A lot of companies confuse branding and positioning, or do
one well and ignore the other. Here in
Silicon Valley, where "buzz" is king, there's a strong focus on PR. The
good companies have a strong, well though-out positioning:
but they don't always invest the same energy in their brand.
Maybe their PR firm told them positioning takes care of the brand, or
maybe their designers told them that all they needed was a logo - it
happens, much too often. In any case, they end up with a brand defined
by random chance or, worse, by their competitors.
But sometimes an organization carefully cultivates their
brand, establishes a solid positioning, and still
runs into trouble. Here's a case where an organization with a great brand
found themselves in a new competitive environment where
their brand was working against them - and how they used
positioning to turn that around.
If
you've attended any movies in the past year, you're sure to have seen one
of the Motion Picture Association of America's "Who Makes Movies?"
spots. The MPAA has a great brand - their consumers' "reason to
care" – the reason we'll watch a movie instead of a reality show
or the evening news, why we'll go to "the movies" instead of bowling or
the ball game. As consumers, we usually see this expressed in
carefully crafted taglines and the "look & feel" of
movie trailers and ads - but you can bet the brand's spirit
is well understood internally, and that it includes words like "escape,"
and "fun," and sex, glamour,
power and money.
It's those last three attributes that were causing
trouble in this case. Sure, they work fine when you're competing
against bowling or "America's Most Wanted," but they threatened to make
the anti-piracy campaign look like the "Rich Movie
Moguls" vs. the "Poor High school Kids" - not a
positioning likely to win the hearts and minds of America!
So
what do you do? The MPAA stayed true to their brand, but developed a
new positioning. By introducing a new set of players (the Set
Painter, the Stuntman, the Make-up Artist), they were able to "retie
the connections" with a positioning that works for this "market" -
the "little guys" who really make the movies,
vs. the "little guys" who want to download them without paying.
As
with many campaigns, the first in the series - "The Set Painter"
- does the best job of delivering the brand, the
positioning, and the call to action. (You can see it
now at the MPAA site,
http://www.respectcopyrights.org/hear-artists.html).
It
starts with a shot of a set painter in a workshop - just another
working stiff - with the title "WHO MAKES MOVIES?" and our
Common Man delivering the brand statement: "A comedy, a fantasy,
an action film - there is no better escape!" Then he tells
us some of the movies he's done, building empathy while also
reinforcing the brand, with shots of the Dick Tracy
and The Big Chill interspersed. (I especially love "I met my wife
when I did The Big Chill." You gotta love this guy!)
Then he hits the heart of the matter: piracy won't affect the producers,
it's us little guys that will be hurt. "Because we are
not million dollar employees. At all!" Then, with the title
"DAVID GOLDSTEIN MAKES MOVIES." superimposed (just in case you needed a
little help!), he tells us "We're lucky if we can put
together 12 straight months. And alls I want to do is
work..."
Then they close quickly with titles that deliver: the call to action
(PUT AN END TO PIRACY.); restate the brand (MOVIES. THEY'RE WORTH IT.);
and their URL.
Regardless of how you feel about movies or the piracy issue, there's a
good lesson for marketers in this 66-second clip. By
combining a well-nurtured brand with the right
positioning for your market, you'll deliver a winning
message that's more productive than either would be alone.
P.S. Clients have asked me a question you may be asking yourself - one
that every marketer should ask about every campaign:
Did it work? For the MPAA campaign, it's too early to tell -
because movie piracy isn't a big problem yet, this campaign is more of a
pre-emptive strike by the MPAA. Download speeds aren't fast enough to
easily support downloads of 2+ hours of high-quality video, so most
pirated movies are low-quality copies shot on a camcorder in a dark
theater.
Downloads are a real issue for the music industry,
where the RIAA has taken a tough-guy approach (MPAA feared
this would backfire in their market). Interestingly, a
survey of college students last year showed that only "knowing a friend
had been arrested" would make them stop downloading music. Time will
tell if the MPAA or RIAA have the right approach...
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Dear mAc |
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Q:
What is the
difference between Product Marketing and Product
Management?
A:
Simply put, Product
Management is in-bound (from the market to the company) and
Product Marketing is out-bound (from the company to the
market). And of course, that's too simple for reality.
The Product
Management function focuses on getting requirements from
the marketplace - from customers, Sales,
competitors, press & analysts - to define the right
product. Product Management then works with Development to deliver
a "whole product" (e.g., software plus documentation plus
training).
Product Marketing's
job is to tell the marketplace about the product. This includes things like
press & analyst rollouts, developing & delivering Sales
training, acting as a "product evangelist," speaking with
prospects and at conferences, etc.
Should they be one
function or two? Myriad synergies argue for a combined role:
two-way conversations let you tell your story and gather
requirements; competitive information must feed product requirements
and sales arguments. But one argument for separation is
almost always overriding: it is extremely difficult to
find any individual who can do both jobs well! And you just can't afford to
leave either underserved.
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About
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